New Q

by Christopher Nuttall

This story is basically set in the ‘Only Human’ universe, in
which Q never gets his powers back after Deja Q and is forced to live as a
human.This does mean, of
course, that Q will have no effects he did in the Star Trek OTL timeline
when he was omnipotent.Alara explored one possibility in
Captain Picard dying in the seventh season when his artificial heart burst
after an ambush, which in the original timeline Q saved him from.(Tapestry).Another possible change is what
happens to Amanda Rogers, who, in the sixth season (True Q), was
discovered to be a child of two Q who had decided to live on earth for a
time, conceived a child and were executed by their fellows.In OTL, Q arrived after her
exposure, taught her, challenged her and finally persuaded her to come
back to the Q Continuum with him.

In the ‘Only Human’ universe, however, Q’s
human himself.He won’t be
sent to help Amanda, so another Q would need to go instead.I suspect that ‘Q2’, who appeared
in ‘Deja Q’(nb – NOT Q’s son
from Voy: Q2) would be the one chosen, as he met Picard in the OH
universe.For clarity’s sake,
I have referred to that Q as ‘Lhoviri’, which is the name a character from ‘Only
Human’ calls him and the JDL-Q as ‘Q’.

And so, read on…

Starbase 56

The entity who was called by a friend, as far
as entities like him had mortal friends, Lhoviri
stood
on the top of Starbase 56.Humans, of course, could not have seen him, but that was fine, the
view of an apparent human standing in empty space without a life-support
unit would have shocked them.

Lhoviri was bored.As a member of a race that processed nearly omnipotent powers, that
was perhaps surprising, but he had been chosen for a task.If he failed at the task, which,
to be fair, he had set himself up for, he would be exiled or worse.So he stayed with the base and
watched with mild amusement as an Andorian was led away by Starfleet
security after kidnapping his charge and trying to take him for scientific
research.Almost casually, he
reached out with his powers and shifted the endpoint of a transwarp
conduct away from the starbase and moved it so that it terminated near a
star.He watched curiously as
the crew of the ship fought against the star’s gravity and headed back
home to the delta quadrant with their tails between their legs.Perhaps, Lhoviri mused, they won’t
try that again.

Lhoviri sighed out loud.He had long suspected that other
members of his species were giving out coordinates for his brother’s
current living place so that his old emanies could come and get him.The federation had agreed to keep
him here and protect him, but there were some races that were too advanced
for federation technology.The ship that Lhoviri had just redirected carried anti-proton
weapons and the crew planned to fire on the starbase at one, reducing it
to rubble before the Starfleet defences could react.

That was all the entertainment that Lhoviri got these
days.

And then there was a flash of light beside him.

“Q!”Lhoviri said.It was
not speech, as a human would have seen it, but a sharing of minds at a
fantastic rate.The two
beings talked quickly.It
seemed that recently a new Q had appeared to be drawing energy from the
continuum.That had two
possible causes; one was a Q granting Q powers to a mortal, the other was
a mortal race that had managed to tap the continuum somehow.The second was a serious threat,
as far as the Q were concerned, and that race was always put under
interdict or destroyed outright.Lhoviri’s mind recognised concern.

The new Q, who had gone by the name of Trelane in an
encounter that had Starfleet command laughing with disbelief, said that it
was neither.Instead the
child of the two Q who were executed a few years back was growing into her
power.That was serious.As the current Q for humanity,
Lhoviri was ordered to go to where she was and start to teach her.If she failed the tests he would
devise, he was to kill her.

Having given Trelane careful instructions on how to take
care of Q, Lhoviri considered his next step.The girl had many possible choices
to starship, so Lhoviri manipulated events so that one ship in particular
would be chosen by her.It
was the ship he had visited briefly before, to inform Q that he was not
yet being returned to full Q-hood.That was good, Lhoviri reasoned, the crew would have some
experience with Qs and who at least know his human form.

No longer bored, Lhoviri teleported back into the
continuum and located the human ship in a split second.Watching carefully, he decided
when to appear.

USS Enterprise

Captain Jean-Luc Picard had many experiences with being
who had powers beyond the federation norm.On his very first mission, his
crew had encountered a being called ‘Q’, who had proceeded to impose a
test on the crew. Having
defeated Q, the captain had then faced him three more times, once when Q
had tempted Riker with the powers he wielded, once when Q had exposed the
federation to the Borg and, the last time, when Q had appeared naked on
the bridge, claiming that he’d lost his powers and requesting asylum.

Picard had not believed him at the time, even
though he’d never caught Q in a lie, until another Q – also called Q for
some reason – had appeared and humiliated Q.Picard had then realized that
there was no way Q could stay on the Enterprise and had arranged to have
him sent to Starbase 56 and looked after there.Since then, he’d never seen Q
again, although a few other powerful beings had appeared, none had
demonstrated the same abilities as Q.

But now there was something really new.A young intern on the Enterprise,
Amanda Rogers, had displayed considerable power, halting a warp core
breach that threatened to destroy the whole ship.As far as federation science could
tell, she was human.

“One moment everything’s fine,” La Forge was
saying, “and then it was as if the laws of physics went right out of the
window.”

There was a flash of light at the end of the
table.

“And why shouldn’t they?” asked the entity who
had appeared, “they’re so inconvenient.”

Picard looked at the entity, recognising his
form as the same one worn by the Q who’d appeared three years ago.He was a tall, lanky blonde man
with shaggy hair.Unlike the
last time Picard had seen him, he had copied Picard’s own Starfleet
uniform.Carefully, Picard
considered the other Q, when they’d met, this Q had shown himself to be
reasonable at times, but he’d been doing at, from his own admission, to
avoid trouble from his own superiors.That said, he’d clearly been
responsible for Q’s exile and further punishment and he had saved Bre'el
IV from disaster.

“Q” Picard said.The other officers looked warily
at the newcomer.

“Taadaa” announced Lhoviri,
for it was he, “tis I!”

“Why are you here at this time?”Picard asked.“Given the few incidents we’ve
had, I don’t think your presence is a coincidence.”

“I can see why Q’s interested in you captain, you see
things where others might miss them and yet you avoid blaming the obvious”
– he gave a self-depreciating shrug – “suspect for your problems.”

“So, what’s really happening?” Picard asked
carefully.

Lhoviri grinned.“This girl Amanda, she’s not human, she’s Q

There was a stunned silence around the
conference table.It was
broken by Doctor Crusher.“How can she be Q?Her
parents were human.”

“Doctor Crusher!” Lhoviri practically exploded with glee and
enthusiasm.“A human woman
who Q spends so much time complaining about can’t be all bad.”He materialised a bunch of red
roses and presented them to her with a bow.“As it happens, Amanda’s parents
were Q too, but they died in a little accident, leaving her alone.”